Hong Kong postpones leader election amid COVID-19 outbreak

Hong Kong will postpone elections for its next leader until May 8 as the city grapples with a worsening coronavirus outbreak with thousands of new infections daily.

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said Friday the elections would be moved six weeks from March 27, noting that holding the polls as originally scheduled would pose “public health risks” even if a committee of only 1,462 voters are involved.

So far, only one candidate — businessman and film producer Checkley Sin — has confirmed his intention to run. It is not clear if Lam will run for re-election.

Lam also said there were plans to test the entire city of Hong Kong for COVID-19, but denied that the city would be put under strict lockdown.

“Mandatory testing and a complete city lockdown may not need to go hand in hand. It depends on the actual situation,” she said. “In our case, having examined the unique situation in Hong Kong, we'll probably just go for universal testing of everyone, but testing more times.”

She cited as an example Macao, which has tested its entire population twice for the virus.

Health authorities said Thursday that the city's hospitals were at 90% capacity and that its isolation facilities were full. Hong Kong’s daily new cases exceeded 2,000 for the first time on Monday. On Thursday, 6,116 new cases were reported.

Hong Kong has aligned itself with China's strict “zero-COVID" policy that involves quarantining incoming travelers, total lockdowns, extensive contact tracing and mass testing of millions of people.

Lam has stuck to the same strategy despite the city’s greater population density, higher incomes and more service-oriented economy than in mainland China. Last week, the entire upscale Discovery Bay neighborhood in Hong Kong was ordered to undergo testing after authorities found traces of the virus in its sewage.